Apple pays investors with dividend and share buyback

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook fulfilled a longstanding desire of investors by initiating a quarterly dividend and share buyback that will pay out $45 billion over three years.

The world's most valuable technology company will start paying its first dividends since 1995 -- a regular quarterly payout of $2.65 a share -- in July, and buy back up to $10 billion of its stock beginning in the next fiscal year.

Ignatius' Report: Bin Laden ordered operatives to kill Obama and Petraeus

Documents found at Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan show that he
directed operatives to kill President Obama and Gen. David Petraeus,
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reports.

"The reason for concentrating on them," the al-Qaeda leader allegedly
wrote, in a document recovered by U.S. forces during the May 2 raid on
the compound, "is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him
automatically will make [Vice President Joe] Biden take over the
presidency. ... Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will
lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the
hour ... and killing him would alter the war's path" in Afghanistan.

Administration officials said Friday that the Obama-Petraeus plot was
never a serious threat. Ignatius reports that he was given an
exclusive look at the documents by a senior administration official.

U.S. unemployment unchanged at 8.3 percent in February

U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs in February to complete three of the best months of hiring since the recession began. The unemployment rate was unchanged, largely because more people streamed into the work force.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent last month, the lowest in three years. And hiring in January and December was better than first thought. The government revised those figures to show 61,000 an additional jobs.

RIM first tablet device: the PlayBook

Research In Motion, the BlackBerry maker, unveiled its first tablet device, the PlayBook. It has a seven-inch screen and weighs less than a pound. RIM is targeting professional consumers and the device has two cameras to enable video-calls, unlike its rival, Apple’s iPad, which has none. It will be available to retailers in early 2011. LG Electronics, Samsung, Dell and Hewlett-Packard are also launching tablet devices.

The early days of personal computing were marked by a spectacular free-for-all as companies big and small fell over one another in a mad rush to become the dominant player in a brand-new business. Now history is repeating itself as one technology firm after another piles into the fledgling market for touch-screen “tablet” computers, which are set to disrupt the computing industry. On September 27th Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian firm that makes the BlackBerry smartphone, became the latest to announce plans for a tablet when it unveiled its PlayBook, which will go on sale in early 2011.

RIM joins a long line of businesses, including Dell, Samsung and Hewlett-Packard (HP), which have set their sights on winning a chunk of what promises to be a whopping market. Todd Bradley, a senior executive at HP, predicted this week that annual sales of tablet computers could hit $40 billion within a few years. But the firm that HP and its rivals would love to beat is Apple, which had sold 3m of its impressive iPads by June, only three months after it came to the market.

Apple’s success has triggered a frenzy of innovation. Soon consumers will be faced with a bewildering array of tablet devices, from Samsung’s Galaxy Tab to Dell’s Streak, with many different screen sizes, different operating systems and various online libraries of software applications, or apps, that can be run on them. Amazon is rumoured to be developing a tablet device that will use Google’s popular Android operating system.

The biggest challenge for firms touting tablets will be to make their devices stand out from the crowd. That is where RIM reckons it has an edge. Although the word “Play” figures in its tablet’s title, the gadget is mainly about work. The company plans to capitalise on the popularity of its BlackBerry smartphone among corporate road-warriors to promote the PlayBook as a must-have business tool. At RIM’s developer jamboree in San Francisco this week, there was much talk of “advanced security features”, “out-of-the-box enterprise support” and other phrases that make the heads of corporate IT departments salivate. The PlayBook also boasts features such as a built-in high-definition camera for video conferencing on the go.


A pad of multimedia

RIM is understandably keen to defend its turf against the threat posed by iPhones and iPads, which being stylish and easy to use are starting to make inroads into businesses. But RIM is also hoping the PlayBook’s features will help it appeal to a broader audience. The device has an impressive new operating system developed by QNX, a firm which RIM bought earlier this year, and it boasts powerful multimedia capabilities. John Jackson of CCS Insight, a research firm, reckons the PlayBook is likely to cost much less than Apple’s iPad, the cheapest version of which sells for $499 in America.

In spite of all this, RIM’s new baby is unlikely to become a bestseller because it suffers from at least two handicaps. The first is that at launch it will have only Wi-Fi connectivity built in. Users wanting to connect via a mobile service will have to link their tablets to a BlackBerry device and connect through that. This will make the PlayBook less appealing to people who are not already RIM customers.

The second handicap is more serious. Simply put, consumers will have relatively little to play with on their PlayBooks. Developers have been working overtime to churn out apps for the iPad and for the growing number of tablets that will use Android. Apple’s tablet can also tap into the several hundred thousand apps already available for the popular iPhone too. So the PlayBook’s apps library—with the exception of its business-related offerings—is likely to look anaemic alongside those of its main competitors.

There may be another hitch too. Soon after the PlayBook hits the shelves, Apple may well be ready to announce a new set of iPads that will have even more impressive features than their predecessors and almost certainly will be cheaper too. Having seized tablet-computing’s crown, Steve Jobs, Apple’s determined boss, isn’t likely to give it up any time soon. ~ The Economist ~

Men's Fashion Bracelet

The introduction of ID bracelets by Speidel Corporation in the 1950s heralded a new era of bracelets for men. The bracelet as men’s jewelry remained a craze till late 1960s, after which it became a regular style symbol.

Compare to ladies' bracelet, men's bracelet are much simpler. Men often wear more of a cuff-style bracelet that have minimal or no accents. Simple bracelets make a huge difference on a man's outfit because they enhance a man's fashion.

In the picture Marc Anthony is wearing a bracelet made from mixes black diamonds with shining silver giving a touch of mystery and luxury.

The most common materials used for men's bracelet are stainless steel, leather, magnetic metal, and sterling silver. Bracelets are also available in materials like tungsten, carbon fiber, platinum and titanium.


Stainless Steel Bracelet

Stainless steel bracelet suits the heavy duty styles such European bracelet style. These are made either from stainless steel alone or sometimes with black carbon fiber. You can get contemporary designs to sleek styles, both signifying men as strong and powerful


Leather Bracelet

Leather bracelet make men look ruggedly handsome. Some of the common designs are braided genuine leather bracelets, Ruby Celtic cross leather bracelet, studded wristband (studded with your favorite gemstones), fish style non-dyed Christian bracelet, Dove Dyed in leather bracelet and many more.


Magnetic Bracelet

Magnetic bracelet normally comes in strands of two or three or more, depending on what the wearer likes. The black matte finished strands are connected by polished connectors in gold plated cobalt magnets. The other common styles are gold and silver bricks attached by neodymium north magnets, Magnetic chain link fence styled bracelet, gold and silver fury magnetic bracelets (designed like the strap of watches) etc. most of these designs come with clasp closure and suit a wrist of any size.


Sterling Silver Bracelets

Sterling silver barcelets are the most exquisite of materials used for bracelets. Although these are harder to maintain than most other bracelet materials, these men’s bracelets impart a class and image to the wearer like no other. Most of these come with link clasps and are intricately designed, without compromising on the manliness of the wearer. Other metals common used with sterling silver bracelets are gold, platinum and yellow gold. ~ dLoewi ~


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